RainbowMod? Sounds familiar, right? We previously covered a custom ROM for the Lumia 710 sharing an identical name, and now it's out for the Lumia 800. Built on Windows Phone "Tango" (7.10.8773.98) and based on Chinese firmware, RainbowMod is shipped with both English (US) and Russian languages.
It's required that the owner has configured the Qualcomm boot loader on their Lumia 800. So what's included in RainbowMod?
It must be noted that the ROM creator does not own a Lumia 800, and thus this may well bust a cap in your Lumia's ass. Windows Phone Central takes no responsibility for any damage caused to your device. Proceed with caution and at your own risk. Head on over to the XDA thread for more information and support.
Source: XDA; thanks Maersk for the heads up!
Good news for Chickens Can't Fly and Xbox Live avatar awards fans as details have surfaced surrounding the unlockables that were previously rumoured to be arriving in an update. Over on Avatar Awards, they've got two items, which are unlocked through reaching in-game achievements. The first is a chicken helmet, which can be won by obtaining 15 gold medals. The second is a pair of chicken slippers that are unlocked after an Xbox Live challenge is won against a friend.
If you haven't played Chickens Can't Fly yet, it's worth checking out. It's basically an up-side-down version of Doodle Jump, but instead of using platforms, you have to guide your falling chicken though deadly hazards.
You can download Chickens Can't Fly from the Marketplace for $2.99.
Source: Avatar Awards
Skype working on Tango has come and gone with Microsoft and Skype announcing that the rushed-to-the-market Windows Phone app will not run on devices with less than 512MB of RAM. We then saw Nokia announce to the world that the Skype app will run on Tango Windows Phones (specifically the Lumia 610) with minimal amounts of memory. This was reaffirmed by Justin Angel using the app on his 610 to feature on a recent Windows Phone Central podcast.
Now Nokia HK has turned around and stated that they have decided to recommend to Lumia 610 customers that the Skype app really shouldn't be used and will not be available to those wielding the device. See the below quote from an email reportedly sent by the manufacturer:
"Nokia values the user experience provided by its products and services. Therefore, although the Skype Windows Phone version is workable on Nokia Lumia 610, after in-depth testing, we found that the user experience is not up to par with Nokia and Skype's expectation and decided not recommending users using Skype on Nokia Lumia 610. In the future, users of Nokia Lumia 610 would no longer be able to download Skype Windows Phone version from Window Phone Marketplace. However, Skype Windows Phone version would still be available for other users."
Looks like devices that are hitting the bare minimum requirements for Windows Phone Tango will not be able to run Skype. At least for now anyway. We're still looking at the Skype app as a pressed result from pressure mounting up on the teams to get something out on the Marketplace. We do expect the teams to sort out the issues and get the app working on low-end hardware as well as the flagship Windows Phones in the future. Our Rafael looked at why there are limitations with Skype on Windows Phone altogether, which is also worth a read.
Source: WeLoveWP.hk (Bing translation)
Nokia has unleashed version 2.0 beta of their Transport app for Lumia Windows Phones. We previously looked at leaked improvements detailed over at a Russian Windows Phone forum earlier in the month. The app provides public transport information and guidance when attempting to reach a destination in a supported location (see our early hands-on).
What's new in version 2-point-oh?
You can check out the beta over at Nokia Beta Labs, or download the current version from the Marketplace (Lumia handsets only). Be sure to double check which locations are supported.
Source: Nokia Beta Labs; thanks Simon for the tip!
The WPUG Windows Phone Bar Camp was an effort to attract more attendees from an earlier start, which had everyone (including myself and Jay) head to The Vibe Bar for a 10am start. Featuring a number of presentations not only from developers, but Telerik (the masters behind the RadControls for Windows Phone) as well.
Speaking of Telerik, be sure to check out their white paper on promoting your newly submitted apps. Apps that were presented included Screach, ZuneCardr, and an upcoming child-friendly app that makes use of approved YouTube playlists, applets and more to provide secure entertainment for the kids.
It was great to see some new developer faces on the night, as well as our friends Rafe Blandford from All About Windows Phone, and Boryana Miloshevska and co from Windows Phone Geek. We hope more UK based developers can make future events. Follow organiser Matt Lacey (@mrlacey) and WPUG (@WPUG) on Twitter for more announcements and details. Check out our presentation and some more shots after the break.
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Skydiving and Windows Phone enthusiast Minesh Mandalia has taken his Lumia 800 with him up Mount Everest. Why not? We've previously seen UK scientists launch the handset up into almost-space attached to a balloon, so it makes sense that such a sturdy companion is also taken up the side of a fairly tall mountain. Mandalia is currently studying BSc Computer Science & Management Studies at the University of Nottingham, and wanted a challenge.
"I’m at university and needed a break, so I thought out of all places why not try the Everest Base Camp, I wanted a challenge."
Unsure as to what he'll need to take on his journey to Everest Base Camp, Mandalia decided to take his trusty Lumia 800 in favour of a laptop among other devices.
"I was first considering taking a laptop to browse the internet, update my Twitter and Facebook, and back up my photos and videos but then realised I could take my phone and have all those features put into one small device. It was the perfect size to keep in my pocket so that I can quickly take it out and snap a photo or check the altitude. The best bit was I didn’t even have to take my gloves off when using the camera – I got some great photos."
"My phone handled the trip really well, despite being exposed to freezing temperatures (up to – 20c!). It even worked perfectly when my fingers couldn’t. It even managed to survive everything from getting bashed with trekking poles and hitting walls as you make way for the Yaks and Sherpas. Even in the bright sunlight reflecting off all the snow topped mountains and glaciers, I could still read my texts and messages on the screen."
If anyone has doubts about the construction and strength of the Lumia 800, the above quote is certainly set to put those concerns to rest. It's a superb achievement for Mandalia, as well as Nokia and Microsoft. What apps did Mandalia use on his journey? GPS Satellite, Flashlight 7, Evernote, SkyDrive and Baconit.
Source: Windows Phone UK
Amazon Wireless has some pretty enticing deals, much like Amazon itself, but the online retailer is now offering the black AT&T Lumia 900 4G Windows Phone for just $9.99 when upgrading, or $39.99 when adding a new line. The Nokia smartphone, which boasts a 5-star rating on Amazon Wireless from 342 customers, is the culprit behind the delays that have occurred in Europe due to high demand in the states.
Powered by a 1.4 single-core chip, and featuring 16GB storage, an 8MP rear-shooter (with FF), 4.3" AMOLED display with ClearBlack technology, and 512MB RAM, the Lumia 900 is definitely no slouch. Will you be picking yours up?
Source: Amazon Wireless; thanks parthp90 for the heads up!
What? "Birdsong is still alive" you say? It seems the team at Red Badger have been busy pumping life into the old girl, who has been dormant since she was updated to Mango. We last spoke of Birdsong, the then-popular Windows Phone Twitter client, when the team announced that intern Joe Stanton would be tasked with bringing the app back up to speed with the competition. So what's new in upcoming 1.7?
The team has introduced a new trends feature, which is now accessible from the main app bar and provides convenient access to Twitter trending data for users. The feature calculates your location and displays nearest trending topics with the option to view what's trending in a specific city, nationwide, or on a global scale.
Search functionality has been revamped and is now more intuitive with the main search view retrieving saved searches automatically. Upon executing a search via Birdsong, the app now searches both tweets and accounts simultaneously. The app makes use of the Twitter API for searching, so any saved searches created / manipulated on the app will be reflected on the website and other apps that make use of the same functionality.
As well as a search revamp and trending topics, Birdsong now supports both photos tweeted using Twitter's in-house hosting service and gzip. Previously, any image hosted with Twitter would show it as a link which could not be selected, but now all photos are loaded correctly depending on user settings. For gzip support, this solves the login issue many experience when attempting to connect their Twitter account to the app on first launch.
There are two bug fixes in 1.7, the first being the above implemented gzip support. Twitter altered their authentication API to always return a gzip response, which resulted in Birdsong not being able to process authenticated responses. The second bug fix is for errors with user profiles where the app was making unauthenticated requests, causing the user to hit brick walls with limits being applied by the social network.
Unfortunately, we couldn't see any mention of the live tile / push service functionality in the change log. Many have been reporting issues with manipulating the settings for said features in Birdsong, where the app would throw a failure message when one attempted to simply enable the service. We hope these known issues will be fixed in a future update, which wont take as long to publish.
Source: Red Badger; Thanks, Kyle, for the tip!
We're not to sure what to make of this ad for the Nokia Lumia 900 showing up on some sites but it caught one of our reader's attention and indeed, it is intriguing.
The ad is simple enough. It shows the 'beautifully different' Lumia 900 in glossy-white with a 4G icon (this is for the international version, not AT&T) spinning around, displaying various features.
But what is different relates to the Live Tiles:
Anyone who has used Windows Phone, any version, knows very well that the Live Tiles do neither of those things. Yet there they are flipping around like they belong there are a new ad.
Now we could easily chalk this up as some marketing error, a glitch made by someone getting Photoshop happy and not accurately representing Windows Phone 7.5--and to be honest, there's a good case for that theory. Or perhaps we're looking at something else, maybe something along the lines of Windows Phone 8 behavior. After all, those are small enough changes that also make tremendous amount of sense for "new features" in an updated OS.
No real way to know of course but if this isn't a Windows Phone 8 leak then Microsoft, you should probably make those changes because they're quite nice. And if a mistake, Nokia you should probably fix it.
Source of ad: PC Advisor; Thanks, Victor V., for the tip
On Sunday we posted a method by which you can get a free Avatar prop featuring Windows Phone--either a Longboard, foam finger or tee-shirt. All you had to do was sign up for the Windows Phone Insider newsletter and you were sent a redeem code.
Then late Sunday/early Monday we started to get word that the offer had suddenly ended, even before most of you were able to try and get one. Now, Microsoft's KC Lemson has posted why on the Windows Phone Blog.
In short, some jerk managed to sweep up all the remaining redeem codes, locking out future users. What's worse, they're selling them on eBay for $10 a pop.
The good news is Microsoft will do right and extend free I <3 Windows Phone shirt avatar props to those users who received a rejection email, meaning not only will you get something, you'll get a more rare item.
No word though if they'll open this up for others who missed the original offer. From the sound of it, it was a successful program. Let's hope they do it again.
Source: Windows Phone Blog; Thanks, FalconX, for the eBay link
